In the field of swimming pools, it is well known that the piping system associated with the swimming pool may become contaminated or infected with bacteria which is difficult to treat using conventional devices and methods. Conventionally, in order to treat the piping system, the entire pool must be treated, thereby allowing treated water to flow through the piping system. However, due to the dissipation of the treatment into the volume within the pool, ineffective amounts of chemicals may be introduced into the piping system. Further, it is well known that contaminated piping systems often cause the water within the pool to become contaminated. It is also well known that chemicals necessary to treat the piping system may not be compatible with chemicals in the pool, such as chlorine, and addition of those chemicals may cause the water to become discolored or create other adverse effects. However, without being able to effectively treat the piping system, it is often difficult to treat the swimming pool. As a result, chemicals must be put into the swimming pool at a volume much greater than would be required to treat the piping system alone.
Therefore, it is desirable to isolate the piping system associated with a swimming pool such that it may be chemically treated without treating the water within the swimming pool itself. Many devices have been produced to assist in the cleaning of a swimming pool. Typical of the art are those devices disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issue Date ______________________________________ 4,275,474 R. C. Woodard June 30, l981 4,637,086 J. Goode Jan. 20, 1987 4,718,129 R. E. Miller Jan. 12, 1988 4,776,053 J. G. Kiraly Oct. 11, 1988 4,832,838 D. K. Stone May 23, 1989 5,311,631 C. L. Smith, Jr. May 17, 1994 5,317,776 R. J. DeMoura June 7, 1994 5,396,677 G. V. Rissik, et al. Mar. 14, 1995 5,398,361 K. N. Cason Mar. 21, 1995 5,465,443 C. A. Rice, et al. Nov. 14, 1995 ______________________________________
Of these devices, that disclosed by Miller ('129) is a container configured to be used with the skimmer of the circulation system. An outlet is defined on the bottom of the container, with an inlet on the top. A vacuum hose is securable to the top of the container. However, the Miller device does not provide a means for isolating the piping system.
The device disclosed by Stone ('838) is provided for creating a turbulence in a swimming pool in order to move larger debris to the top of the swimming pool to then be removed through the skimmer, with smaller debris being forced through a drain in the floor of the pool. As in the Miller device, there is no provision for the isolation of the piping system from the volume of water in the swimming pool.
DeMoura ('776) discloses an electrically powered vacuum apparatus for use in a swimming pool, exclusive of the circulatory system associated with the swimming pool. Although the DeMoura device incorporates a vacuum head, and especially because of its exclusive nature with respect to the circulatory system, the DeMoura device cannot be used to isolate the piping system from the swimming pool.
The remainder of the referenced patents disclose various devices which are vacuum heads for use with conventional swimming pool cleaning systems. As with the previous devices, such do not disclose a means for isolating the swimming pool piping. Nor does any of the cited prior art indicate a need to isolate the piping.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a means for isolating the piping system associated with a swimming pool such that the water within the piping system may be chemically treated, substantially exclusive of the volume of water within the swimming pool.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a means for isolating the swimming pool piping whereby chemical treatment of the piping may be accomplished using a greatly reduced volume of chemicals, as a result of not being required to add chemicals into the entire volume of water within the swimming pool and piping system, thereby reducing the expense of cleaning the piping system.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a device which may be adapted to be used with any selected circulatory system associated with a liquid retention reservoir.